"Well, well!" answered Dr. Wilton, "we will try to catch the griffin, my dear sir, and you shall not find me wanting in ardor to effect the preliminary step, if you will aid me to bring about the second, and let me dress my griffin when I have caught him. To say the truth," he added, relapsing into grave seriousness, "the subject is not a laughing one; and I am afraid I have suffered my personal feelings to become somewhat too keenly interested--perhaps to a degree of levity. God knows, there is little reason for us to be eager in the matter, except from a desire that, by the punishment of the guilty, the innocent should be saved; and I am willing to confess, that I entertain not the slightest doubt of the innocence of William Delaware. A crime has certainly been committed by some one; and according to all the laws of God and man, it is one which should be punished most severely. Heaven forbid, however, that I should treat such a matter with levity. All I meant to say is, that if we do succeed in apprehending the real murderers, we must endeavor to make their conviction the means of clearly exculpating the innocent."
"I hope we shall be as successful as you could wish," replied Mr. Egerton; "and I think it would give me scarcely less pleasure than it would give yourself, to hear that Captain Delaware is innocent, although I will not suffer either a previous good character, or a gallant deportment, or a handsome countenance to weigh with me, except as presumptive testimony in his favor, and as a caution to myself to be on my guard against the natural predilections of man's heart. But what have you discovered regarding the hat?"
"Confirmation, I am afraid, too strong, of my worst fears," answered Dr. Wilton; and he related how positively Mrs. Wilson had declared it to have belonged to Mr. Beauchamp. Measures for investigating this event also, were immediately taken, and information of the supposed death, by drowning, of a gentleman lately residing at Emberton, was given to all the stations on that coast. This new catastrophe, of course, furnished fresh food to the gossiping propensities of the people of the town; and the tale, improved by the rich and prolific imaginations of its inhabitants, was sent forth connected by a thousand fine and filmy links with the murder of the miser, and the disappearance of the Delaware family. It instantly appeared in all the public prints, who, to do them but justice, were far too charitable to leave it in its original nakedness. Hence it was transferred, with new scenery, dresses, and decorations, to a broad sheet of very thin paper, and distributed by a man, with a loud voice, on the consideration of one halfpenny, to wondering housemaids, and keepers of chandler's shops, under the taking title of the "Ryebury Tragedy!" and there is strong reason to believe that it was alone owing to the temporary difficulties of Mr. ----, of the ---- theater, that Captain William Delaware was not brought upon the boards, with a knife in his hand, cutting the throat of the miser, while Henry Beauchamp threw himself from the rocks into the sea, for love of the murderer's sister. That this theatrical consummation did not take place is much to be wondered at; and it is to be hoped that, when the managers are furnished with all the correct particulars, they will give the public their version of the matter on every stage from Drury Lane to the very barn at Emberton itself.
As may be easily supposed, for two country magistrates, Dr. Wilton and Mr. Egerton had now their hands tolerably full; and consequently, on separating, they agreed to meet again at Emberton in two days. In the mean time, the funeral of the murdered man took place, conducted, as Mr. Peter Tims assured every body, with that attention to economy which would have been gratifying to the deceased himself, could he have witnessed it. Nobody could doubt that the nephew had probability on his side in this respect, though the undertaker grumbled, and the mercer called him a shabby person. After the interment, Mr. Tims took possession of the premises and the papers of the deceased; but, for reasons that may be easily divined, he did not choose to stay in the dwelling that his uncle had inhabited. Passing the ensuing evening and night at the inn, he had all the papers removed thither, and continued in the examination thereof for many an hour, in a room from which even his own clerk was excluded. Those who saw him afterward, declared that his countenance was as resplendent as a new sovereign; but he selfishly kept all his joy to his own bosom; and, after spending another day in Emberton, he set off post for London, with many a bag and tin case, to take out letters of administration.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Lord Ashborough left his niece, Maria Beauchamp, and the chief part of his establishment, in the country; and setting out with but two servants, arrived in the metropolis late on Saturday night. With that attention to decorum and propriety which formed a chief point in his minor policy, he appeared, on the Sunday morning, in the gallery of St. George's Church, Hanover-square, exactly as the organ sounded, and with grave and devout face, passed through the next two hours. But let it not be supposed that the impressive service of the Church of England, read even in its most impressive manner, occupied his thoughts, or that even the eloquence of a Hodgson caught his ear and affected his heart. It was only the flesh-and-blood tenement of Lord Ashborough that was at church; Lord Ashborough himself, in heart and in spirit, was in his library in Grosvenor-square, eagerly conversing with Mr. Peter Tims on the best means of snatching the last spoils of his enemy, Sir Sidney Delaware. Not that Lord Ashborough did not go to church with the full and clear purpose of doing his duty; but people's ideas of doing their duty are so very various, that he thought the going to church quite enough--without attending.
Now, in spite of risking a _longueur_, we must observe, that there are some people, who, although they live in great opposition to the doctrines they hear, nevertheless deserve a certain degree of honor for going to church, because they persevere in doing so, though the two hours they spend there are the most tiresome of their whole lives. Attribute it to resolution, or sense of decency, or what you will, still some honor is their due; but we are sorry to say that no such plea could be set up in favor of Lord Ashborough. The two hours that he spent at church were not tedious; he had the comfortable persuasion that he was doing his duty, and setting a good example; and, at the same time, had a fair opportunity of thinking over all his plans and projects for the ensuing week, without any chance of interruption. Thus, the time he spent within the holy walls, was a time of calm and pleasant reflection, and what profit he derived from it, the rest of his life must show. At all events, there was nothing disagreeable in it. It was a part of the pomp and parade of existence, and he went through it all with a degree of equanimity that took away every kind of merit from the act.
Before he had concluded his breakfast on the Monday morning, a servant announced that Mr. Peter Tims had been shown into the library; and thither Lord Ashborough bent his steps, after he had kept the lawyer waiting long enough to preserve his dignity and show his indifference.
Mr. Peter Tims was seated in the far corner of the library with great humility, and rose instantly on the peer's entrance, bowing to the ground. Now, the fact was--and it may need some explanation--that Mr. Tims found he was growing a great man, in his own estimation, on the wealth he derived from his uncle. He had just discovered that pride was beginning to get above avarice in his heart, and he became afraid. that Lord Ashborough might think he was deviating into too great familiarity, from feeling a strong inclination in his own bosom to do so. Such a consummation was, of course, not desirable on many accounts; and with his usual politic shrewdness, Peter Tims resolved to assume a far greater degree of humility than he really felt, and--while by other means he raised himself slowly in the estimation both of his noble patron and the world in general, suffering his newly-acquired wealth silently to act with its own weight--and determined to affect still a tone of ample subserviency till his objects were fully gained.
In the mean while, Lord Ashborough, who believed that a gulf as wide as that which yawned in the Forum lay between himself and Peter Tims, bespoke the lawyer with condescending civility, bade him take a seat and inquired what news he had brought from Emberton.